Ethos, Pathos and Logos
What are Ethos, Pathos, and Logos?
Ethos, pathos, and logos are three persuasion techniques that resonate with an audience in distinct ways: ethos leverages the credibility and reputation of the speaker, pathos targets the emotions of the audience, and logos relies on logic and evidence.
The Basic Idea
We are bombarded with messages from companies, authorities, and family and friends on a daily basis. Often, the aim is to influence our behavior in a particular way. Companies might try to get you to buy their product; the government might urge you to recycle; your family might advise your career path; your friends might persuade you to party with them this weekend. Since our behavior is influenced by so many different messages, what determines which information we listen to and which we ignore?
Ethos, pathos and logos are three methods of persuasion: rhetorical appeals that influence decision-making.
Ethos is an appeal to the authority and reputation of the speaker (or writer).1 For example, if your dad wants you to study business at school, he might say, “I’m older and have more life experience, therefore I know what’s best for you.”
Pathos is an appeal to emotions.1 Pulling at an audience’s heart strings can persuade them to listen. For example, if the government makes an emotional plea that you have to recycle more because Earth is ‘dying,’ their emotive language might make you more likely to act.
Lastly, logos is an appeal to logic or evidence, which often takes the form of statistics.1 If a company wants you to buy their all-purpose cleaner, they might persuade you by advertising that it “kills 98% of all bacteria and germs.”
Of the modes of persuasion furnished by the spoken word there are three kinds. The first kind depends on the personal character of the speaker [ethos]; the second on putting the audience into a certain frame of mind [pathos]; the third on the proof, or apparent proof, provided by the words of the speech itself [logos]. Persuasion is achieved by the speaker’s personal character when the speech is so spoken as to make us think him credible..
– Aristotle, in Rhetoric2
